CBS CEO Les Moonves is known to occasionally drop pieces of information that he?s not supposed to on his company?s earnings calls, and this quarter was no exception. When asked about CBS?s appetite for striking deals with new streaming providers that might not have the money to pay cash up front to license its content, Moonves said that CBS had decided against joining an Apple TV service because it was based on an ad split. Apple is rumored to be working on a subscription streaming service that would have content from many TV networks and would go up against the typical cable and satellite services. From what has been reported the CBS philosophy of getting paid for upfront licensing fees for syndication of its content online, as opposed to partnering on revenue-sharing agreements. This is also why CBS didn’t join Hulu. Although it looks like that move is paying off as they struck a deal with Netflix and Amazon earlier this year and the CW also licensed its shows to Netflix and Hulu.
Today I am focusing on the Playstation Vita which is the new handheld console of the Sony family. Looks like an original PSP with a touch screen to me. But is that all it really offers is a wonderful touch screen? So the cost of this will be $249 with wi-fi and $299 with 3G. 3G is going to be exclusive to AT&T it looks like so if want to use 3G you will have to hook up with their data plans like the iPad. So here are the main differences between the PSP and the new PS Vita:
? Advanced portable entertainment system
A high performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system. PS Vita also adopts the Super Oval Design form factor, which fits comfortably in users’ hands.
? Revolutionary User Interface
A unique multi-touch pad on the rear, with the front touch display. Two cameras on it’s front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer, and electronic compass.
? LiveArea?
Every game title for PS Vita will be provided with a space called “LiveArea?” where users can share the fun and excitement with other players.
? Location-based services
SCE will provide location-based services on PS Vita as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called “Near,” developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system.
? Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity
PS Vita is equipped with 3G in addition to Wi-Fi.
? Closely coordinated with PlayStation Suite
The newly developed and released game content for Android based portable devices can also be enjoyed on PS Vita.
Starting Tuesday, Facebook is releasing Deals as a ?test? in five cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. The company, which has more than 600 million members, said it hoped that its ability to tap directly into the communications and activities of networks of friends will help it offer a more compelling service than rivals. It will be easy to share deals with friends, see when a friend buys something and find offers that your friends are interested in, said Emily White, Facebook?s director for local. Facebook will focus on offers for things that are best done with friends, like concerts or events, she said.
?You can receive Facebook deals via e-mail,? she said. ?But if there is a deal that is good for you, it will likely show up in your news feed at some point in the day.?
Most of the sites you can get deals from let you link the deals to Facebook but this would be more of the actual site getting these deals as aposed to sharing via Groupon or Living Social. This is going to be another way for Facebook to increase revenue streams, with the movie rental testing seemingly going well, it is no doubt that if Facebook has the right amount of deals, people will pay for them.
Gamers have been waiting years for Nintendo to finally release its Wii successor, and Game Informer has heard from multiple sources that the company will unveil it at E3 this summer if not sooner. There has been talk about an HD Wii for some time now, and the time is perfect ? almost necessary ? for Nintendo to jump start itself with this new system. The company has been feeling the bite since Wili sales have declined from the previous years, and this week’s news that Nintendo could be dropping the price on May 15th of the Wii and an attempt to move as many Wii units as possible out of the retail channel before the new system hits. There is no confirmation if this new system will be backward compatible with the Wii or if it will even carry the Wii branding as has often been rumored. It is our understanding that Nintendo is trying to embrace the western gamer and will likely launch a new brand with this console. Around the office we have dubbed the system Nintendo HD. However, this information at this point is conjecture.
Google is looking to make an overhaul of YouTube as it is trying to position itself for what is going to be the rise of televisions that let people watch online videos in their living rooms. Google wants YouTube to compete against broadcasts and cable television. This is a goal to get people to stay on YouTube longer. I don?t know about you but I could watch a Pug singing the Batman theme a hundred times and it still wouldn?t get old. The site is going change the homepage to highlight sets of channels around topics of arts, news, and sports. About 20 channels with have hours of professionally produced original programming per week and there is a possibility they will have channels for content currently on the site. It is said that $100 million to commission low cost content specifically for the web. The reason this could be happening is because Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion back in 2006 and is pressured to make YouTube a cash cow. The main idea would be to get people to stay on YouTube longer there increasing ad revenues for the website and if any of the shows they plan to produce get big, I am sure they will make tons of money on the ad revenue for that time slot and channel. These new idea should be interesting and maybe I will be watching.
Amazon yesterday announced a new service in which you can store all of your music in one place and then be able to stream it through your phone and other devices. Well once again the music industry is crying foul. Stating that Amazon needs to get streaming licensing agreements for people to access their own music that they most likely already bought from a source like iTunes. Apparently Amazon is in the works of obtaining such licenses but not before launching the Cloud service. Of course the first thing I read about this is from Sony music having issues with the fact this streaming deal hasn?t been put into place but they are in high hopes that this happens.
This is not the first time a company has been taken to court over this back in 2007 EMI sued MP3tunes, which was a company that offered a service similar to the Cloud. It is unclear whether customers who own the music are allowed to remotely access the storage services offered by cloud computing. I am against the whole litigation against companies that are offering a service to stream music you already own to your private devices. If the music companies want to get paid for stuff they didn?t invent, why they don?t start working on these technologies. I feel like this is a bit of double dipping. The customer pays for the song but yet can?t access it from their computers via their phone. Well the funny thing s if you have an iPod and put music on that, you still have the music on your PC and iPod. So should the music industry put a tax on companies who make MP3 devices, full knowing the music could go on an iPad, iPod and still be on someone?s computer? But since it is not being streamed over the internet it?s ok to do that? This is a convenience service that a company created and people will love it and it is free for the first 5GB but the starving music industry must need a bail out from the government with all the litigation they do. I hope that if this goes to court the judge rules in the favor of Amazon. I am always angry to read these types of things, we can all understand the music industries battle against piracy because that is illegal but this cloud computing seems like a gray area to me. By ruling in the favor of the music industry this could open problems for other cloud computing ideas everywhere.
Google is looking to make an overhaul of YouTube as it is trying to position itself for what is going to be the rise of televisions that let people watch online videos in their living rooms. Google wants YouTube to compete against broadcasts and cable television. This is a goal to get people to stay on YouTube longer. I don?t know about you but I could watch a Pug singing the Batman theme a hundred times and it still wouldn?t get old. The site is going change the homepage to highlight sets of channels around topics of arts, news, and sports. About 20 channels with have hours of professionally produced original programming per week and there is a possibility they will have channels for content currently on the site. It is said that $100 million to commission low cost content specifically for the web. The reason this could be happening is because Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion back in 2006 and is pressured to make YouTube a cash cow. The main idea would be to get people to stay on YouTube longer there increasing ad revenues for the website and if any of the shows they plan to produce get big, I am sure they will make tons of money on the ad revenue for that time slot and channel. These new idea should be interesting and maybe I will be watching.